Help! Unknown HDD Enclosure Error.

[rvt50]

Slightly stressed and unsure what has happened.

I went to check some movie files I'd dragged over to my external HDD from yesterday, the folder was empty and I had an error message pop up. I'd never had this before with this device, so I was on alert. I thought, I'd just try restarting the device and computer. Did this, now I cannot access the drive AT ALL. It appears in my computer, but it doesn't seem to know how much space there is on it, unlike my other drives.

If I try to open the drive (A), it gives me another error message. "not accessible" "The parameter is incorrect".

Also, when turned on, the lights on the front indicate no error as they should. But the main light which tells me there is drive activity is active constantly - what is it doing? I have turned it back off...

It is a 4 bay StarTech enclosure running at RAID5 with 4 bays used, all identical 4TB drives.

I am on Win10 (updated a month or so ago).

Does anyone have any idea what could be at fault or how to proceed? The enclosure is on the older side but has never had any issues until now.

Input hugely appreciated !

- Richard

edit here are two screen shots of what I am seeing...

 

[rvt50]

I should add: that disk management view shows "A" as 100% free. Does that mean all my data has been destroyed suddenly, for some unknown reason? I am completely perplexed by this.

 

[yoji]

HHmm.. I'm just going to throw thi sin.. its prob rubbish.. but isn't "A" drive reserved for floppies?
Did you name it A? or was it allocated by default?
You can see it showing up as RAW.. in disk management - so Windows currently thinks it unformatted and empty.
RAID5 has recover (IIRC) for if one HDD fails.. so unless you been ingnorning warnings and a second drive has failed.. it should be OK..
Sounds like you shou dnot give up on it yet.. and wait for someone who has more experience than me.
Cheers

 

[rvt50]

@yoji: Thanks for your help. This is on a laptop (around 2012 IIRC), it has never had an floppy drive. I think I may have chose "A" myself, BUT it has always been that letter, never changed.

I haven't ignored warnings AFAIK... there is simple error light system to tell me if a drive becomes faulty etc... The fact that windows thinks it is empty is indeed worrying. I also fear that the constant drive activity is it re-formatting to a RAID5 array, as if it had just been installed. I have turned it back off.

So much data... (99% photos).

 

[yoji]

So much data... (99% photos).

I hope you have a backup if the photos are important?
I have irreplaceable photos (family pics of children when babies etc) on a NAS with drive in RAID1,.. but its not enough.. it NOT a backup
so I have backups.. and then periodically take them off site.. (just in case house burns down... they that important).

I would turn off your enclosure until you get a proper reply from someone with more experience..
I hope you get it sorted.
Cheers

 

[rvt50]

So much data... (99% photos).

I hope you have a backup if the photos are important?
I have irreplaceable photos (family pics of children when babies etc) on a NAS with drive in RAID1,.. but its not enough.. it NOT a backup
so I have backups.. and then periodically take them off site.. (just in case house burns down... they that important).

I would turn off your enclosure until you get a proper reply from someone with more experience..
I hope you get it sorted.
Cheers

Yep, I have pretty much everything backed up. I at least have a version of everything, at least. For some specific things, I think I may only have the raw files, which will mean re-processing to JPEG, but that is not a big deal. I have cloud(s) for backup too, one auto, one manual, but I have limited success with these because of the internet connection required to *really* back *everything* up.

I have a 4 bay nas which is my main backup, which is more or less identical (it's more of a essentials, so often 1 copy, rather than any edits). But right now sits as my most complete archive, so I am a little nervous, to say the least...

I'll sit and wait, everything is off now, if someone has some experience to share it would be appreciated.

 

[rvt50]

StarTech took me through all the basic checks I'd already done and couldn't really come to a conclusion, other than it appears the enclosure and drives are likely okay, but "perhaps" some damage has happened to the partition. And suggested recovery software may be the only choice, but they don't recommend any for liability purposes etc.

Anyone have anything else before I try the software recovery route?

Thank you.